Sebastian
Schmieg, a Berlin art student, has recently created 81
Points of View, an interactive sculpture which puts the viewer
in charge of creating an illusion and "reverses the process of
hiding all the technology involved".

The installation makes use of an 19th Century illusion known as
Pepper's
Ghost, something that Schmieg was introduced to by a university
tutor, although as he explained in an interview with Wired.co.uk
the effect is fairly commonplace: "One gets to see it regularly
when looking through a window when it's dark outside."

81 Points of View uses some mirrors and thin acrylic
glass to create an augmented version of the viewer's perspective.
The participant is able to move the projector, using an attached
handle, to display any of the 81 slides which make up a panoramic
scene. A slide is then selected which reflects the position of the
viewer and correlates this to a view within the scene. That slide
is then projected onto the glass and mirrors attached to the
sculpture to create an illusion using the same principles of
reflected angles as Pepper's Ghost. The slides show scenes from a
short, cyclical animation of identifiable 3D shapes and graphics
which appear to float before your eyes.

As Schmieg explains, "the basic idea is that when you rotate the
projector, the tray carrying the slides rotates in the opposite
direction. That way it always keeps its position relative to the
ground." As a result, the viewer is able to look at the augmented
reality created by the glass and mirrors above the projector.

The slides in question comprise familiar scenes which showcase
perspective at its best: "With the help of a friend I created
this little 3D-scene with iconic objects like the utah teapot,
primitive shapes or columns. These are objects that played an
important role in the history of 3D computer graphics. Checkerboard patterns and columns can
also be seen in a lot in paintings from the Renaissance, a time
when perspective as we know it today was more or less being
established in painting."

You can see some of the scenes created by 81 Points of
View and the equipment involved in our gallery, or check out
the video above to see the sculpture in action.